Monday, July 23, 2007

Just a quick note before going dark for the move - especially since my laptop has well and truly taken a crap on me (this comes to you from the Lord and Master's keyboard) Everytime I open it up a siren sounds for about two minutes then it boots up normally - the keyboard is still wigging out as before, only worse with more keys involved. So it's become a problem to be addressed on the other end and that means being pc-less for at least three weeks - or more.

To make matters more, a-hem, challenging, my busted wing is back in the form of a pinched nerve with accompanying muscle spasms. This has rendered my left arm useless and me moaning and whimpering in pain. Geez. Like I don't need both arms these days.

Oh, and it just started raining....

Anyways, I wish you all well in my absence and will be joining you again from Denver in a few weeks. Best wishes - Dinah.

That seems to be the case this month, as CAIR's finances continue to plummet. Two weeks ago at the end of June, I observed ("A Bad June for CAIR") that CAIR raised less than one-fourth of their monthly budgeted goal of $250,000 for that month. This month, however, things appear to have gotten worse. Half-way through July, CAIR has raised less than 1/100th of what they need to make budget (0.969%), bringing in less than $2,500. If last month fundraising had come to a trickle, they have now come to a very, very slow drip. I'm sure being named unindicted co-conspirator in a terror finance trial didn't help last month. Almost makes you sorry for the poor soul responisble for their fundraising. Almost.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Call for Fair Taxation.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called for fair taxation system to encourage timely payment.“One of the factors which motivate timely tax payment is levying taxes on a fair basis. Tax payers should be encouraged to contribute to estimating taxes and making payments voluntarily,“ said Ahmadinejad in an address to a group of tax collectors, IRNA reported.President Ahmadinejad also called on respective officials to build the culture of voluntary tax payment among citizens.He regretted that there is a popular misconception that oil revenues are infinite and the country’s oil earnings far outweigh national expenditure. “Everyone should know that oil revenues will come to an end one day and if we spend oil earnings today, they will not be sufficient for paying all our expenses,“ he said.

Calls on media to grease the skids and tell the citizenry to get ready to bend over:

Ahmadinejad further said that media play a significant role in preparing the people to pay taxes and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting should include more programs on taxation.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to pay a day-long visit to Syria on Thursday to congratulate President Bashar al-Assad on the beginning of his second seven-year term in office as Syria's president.

President al-Assad is officially to swear in for his second term in office on Tuesday.

The Taliban were behind the recent terrorist attack on Iran’s Consulate in Kandahar, said an informed source in Foreign Ministry. He noted that it was the second terrorist attack on Iran’s diplomatic mission in Afghanistan after the bombing of a car belonging to Iran’s Consulate, Fars reported.

The source described such hostile measures by Taliban against Iran as evidence that allegations by British and US officials regarding Iran’s role in Afghanistan are baseless.

Here's the real funny:

The British and the US media, including Jane’s Terrorism and Security Monitor (a subsidiary of Jane’s Defence), have expressed doubt about the allegations of US military officials on Iran’s interference in Afghanistan. The deny seeing any evidence of Iranians’ assistance to Afghan opposition groups.

Spain and Morocco will step up surveillance of the surge in summer tourists travelling across the Strait of Gibraltar because of concern about potential terrorism attacks by al-Qaeda.According to the Spanish daily newspaper, 'El Pais', the Spanish and Moroccan authorities are deploying thousands of police to check documents and vehicles, and patrol various 'hotspots' along the tourist route that connects the two countries.Codenamed 'Operation Strait Passage', the joint exercise is designed to stop terrorist organisations from exploiting the congestion caused by the huge influx of people and vehicles entering Spain and the rest of Europe during the next two months.Spain's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Miguel Angel Moratinos, and a representative of Morocco's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Taieb Fassi Fihri, met in Madrid on Tuesday to discuss the joint operation. "There is no concrete information about possible attacks in Spain or Morocco," said Moratinos. "But the situation that exists in the world today means we must enforce the greatest scrutiny."

However...

Every year from June to September the Strait of Gibraltar is a 'bridge' for more than a million people and ferries are filled with hundreds and thousands of vehicles. Many Moroccans and Africans who live in France and Spain return home for their summer vacation. According to Spanish data, this year's traffic is expected to increase by 6 per cent - with 730,000 vehicles crossing the strait and more than 1.5 million people.

In recent days, Rabat has raised the security alert amid fears that al-Qaeda will try and send terrorists to Europe.

According to 'El Pais', police will be reinforced in the Moroccan port cities where vehicles disembark - Malaga, Alicante Algeciras, Ceuta e Melilla and Tarifa.

Last month the newspaper released details of a confidential police report which said Spain was at a 'high' risk of a terrorist attack and intelligence services were concerned about growing extremism among 'second generation' immigrants

"It certainly is an issue of granting equal opportunities for all, but we must also be aware of the risk of such schools becoming divisive,” Din told AKI.“However, if people want these schools, then the provision of public funding might constitute an important form of check on their curriculums,” she added.

A long-legged woman posing playfully in a martini glass. A bikini-clad bottom gyrating for smirking men. A woman in a hijab looking forlorn and oppressed.(ed.note: That's because she IS forlorn and oppressed)

Those images are all too common in American media, according to the National Organization for Women. And it's time they change.How women are portrayed in the media was the focus of several forums at the NOW national convention Friday at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn.

"It's important to identify our similarities instead of our differences," said Rana Abbas, who helped lead a forum on issues facing Arab-American women.

A Muslim of Lebanese descent, Abbas said that many people assume that reactions in this country to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks mostly affected Arab men. "It's the women who truly have suffered," said Abbas, noting that it is the women who must stay behind and raise the family when husbands are targeted by ethnic profiling and deported.

With summer time heath (sic) reaching new peaks, the commander of Tehran Police announced new crackdowns, this time targeting mostly young boys wearing “perverted western dress and hairs cut according to “pervert western models”.

From the first of Mordad (the Iranian month starting on July 23) police numbers will double to confront immoral behaviour", Tehran police chief stated, quoted by the media.

Boys with shorts panties, dresses having “pervert western marks and hairs cut using western pervert styles would be arrested, taken to special police detention centres where they would have to give the name of the hair dresser who has cut their heirs (sic)using “pervert western patterns” before asking their parents to come for taking them away, the Commander said, quoted by “Aftab” news website.

If the boy has a “perverted western hair dress, the parents have to take him to a hair dresser to arrange his hairs “normal looking”. If he is wearing “perverted western dress”, like short pants, or dresses having “western pervert marks”, the parents have to bring with them “normal clothing” to be changed at the detention centre before taking their progenitor away.

Hoo-boy. There's more about the 'monkerat'(morality po-lice)at thelink.

During an ongoing exhibit titled “My Land’s Women,” deputy governor of Tehran announced, “200 new chador designs, 50 superior hejab designs and 60 new dress designs, which have all been approved by university professors, will be unveiled for female participants at the exhibit.”

North Korea's security agency has ordered the shutdown of karaoke bars and Internet cafes, saying they are a threat to society, according to reports in a South Korean newspaper on Wednesday. 'It is so promulgated under the mandate of the Republic in order to crush enemy scheming and to squarely confront those who threaten the maintenance of the socialist system,' the daily quoted the ministry directive as saying.

Those who violated the order could face a range of punishments, including being exiled to different regions of the country, reports say.

Police chiefs are demanding the power to lock up terror suspects indefinitely, it has emerged. Reopening the debate over detention without trial, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) called for some suspects to be held for "as long as it takes".

A SUSPECTED Al-Qaeda operative who is believed by MI5 to have played a key role in the events leading up to the July 21 failed bombings is at liberty and living in east London. Mohammed al-Ghabra, a 27-year-old Syrian who has been given British citizenship, is said by security sources to have arranged for the leader of the failed 21/7 London suicide attacks to travel to Pakistan for terrorist training.

I sawthis headlineand thought, "Oh, they must be increasing security around the Queen, what the Rushdie affair and increased AQ/Islam-o-nutter chatter and all. Imagine my surprise to find out that they were talking about Gordon Brown laying siege to her powers.

MEMBERS of Parliament will no longer have to swear allegiance to the Queen under constitutional reforms put forward by one of Gordon Brown’s closest advisers.

The blueprint, produced by the Prime Minister’s special adviser Michael Jacobs, would also turn the British into “citizens,” rather than “subjects,” and could even spell the end for our national anthem.Downing Street last night distanced itself from the controversial ideas, saying there were no plans to adopt them. A spokesman said Mr Jacobs advised the Prime Minister on environmental issues(ed.note: Figures.)rather than constitutional affairs.

But critics pointed out that Mr Brown had already moved quickly to adopt key parts of the Jacobs plan, including ending the Royal Prerogative and having the Gov­ernment’s programme laid out by the Prime Minister in the Commons rather than the Queen at the annual state opening of Parliament.Royal sources said the Queen was already alarmed by the pace of change under the Brown regime.

According to senior intelligence officials, the troops who finally took control discovered letters from Osama Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. They were written to Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Abdul Aziz, the brothers who ran the mosque and adjacent madrasah.

Government sources said up to 18 foreign fighters — including Uzbeks, Egyptians and several Afghans — had arrived weeks before the final shootout and set up firing ranges to teach students, including children, how to handle weapons.

A rumbling volcano in eastern Indonesia spewed ash and lava Thursday, as authorities expressed fears that a shift in winds could send hot clouds of volcanic debris onto villages below.

Thousands of people have been evacuated and others have been told to stay away from the eight-kilometre danger zone along the mountain's slopes, said Saut Simatupang of the government's volcano monitoring agency.

Mount Gamkonora on Halmahera island has put authorities on the highest alert since Monday, and lava and debris have spilled from its mouth for days. Hot clouds of ash were shooting more than 1,000 metres into the sky on Thursday, a slight decrease in activity.

BBC reported the lawsuit filed by Davlatimo Ismailova against the Tajik Ministry of Education and her college administration dismissed. Administration of the Foreign Languages College in Dushanbe does not permit Ismailova to wear hijab, the traditional Moslem scarf.

The plaintiff told judges that the ban on hijabs encroaches on her freedom to worship.

"The case is dismissed because the plaintiff failed to present any evidence," Reuters quoted Judge Abdullo Rahmatov as saying. "The Ministry of Education bases its instructions on the accepted educational norms and standards."

"I was expecting it. All the same, I'm not through with them yet. I will complain to the municipal court first and to the Supreme Court after that. If it comes to that, I'll appeal to international courts," Ismailova told BBC.

(The hijab is banned at state, secular, and educational establishments. )

"This decision is illegitimate because it collides with the constitution which allows citizens of Tajikistan to wear whatever takes their fancy," Kudratov said.

Minister of Education Abdujabbor Rahmonov never doubted the verdict would be favorable. He views hijab wearers as promoters of religious ideas.

Ismailova in the meantime is told to stay away from the college as long as she wears hijab.

A right-wing Dutch lawmaker wants women jailed for wearing the head-to-toe Islamic robe known as a burqa, calling it a "symbol of oppression."

Geert Wilders, whose Freedom Party has nine lawmakers in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament, filed a proposal Thursday to make wearing a burqa in public a crime punishable by up to 12 days jail.

"The burqa and niqab are a symbol of oppression of women," Wilders told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He said burqas and the niqab — a full-faced veil with only a slit for the eyes — hindered integration of Muslim women into Dutch society and also posed a security risk.

An Islamic community spokesman, Ayhan Tonca, called Wilders' proposal "totally out of proportion" and accused him of seeking to broaden a rift between Muslims and the rest of Dutch society.

Last November, the Dutch government said it was drawing up legislation to ban burqas, but that administration was defeated in elections the same month. The new centrist coalition of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has no plans to implement a burqa ban, meaning Wilders' proposal has little chance of becoming law.

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., told a group of atheists earlier this week the actions of the Bush administration in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks remind him of the Nazis' use of the burning of Berlin’s Reichstag parliament building in 1933 to expand their power.

Ellison, at a noontime speech before Atheists for Human Rights, told the Minneapolis-based group, "You'll always find this Muslim standing up for your right to be atheists."

The congressman talked to the group of over 100 meeting in the Southdale Library in Edina about a number of topics – impeaching Vice President Cheney, Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence, the war in Iraq and the 2001 attacks by al-Qaida.

Speaking of the destruction of the World Trade Center and the damage to the Pentagon, Ellison said, "It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that. After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the communists for it and it put the leader of that country [Hitler] in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted.

Then he tries to weasel out of it...sort of.

On Tuesday, Ellison attempted to further clarify his Reichstag statement by telling the Minneapolis Star-Tribune he was making the point that "in the aftermath of a tragedy, space is opened up for governments to take action that they could not have achieved before that."When asked for examples of such Nazi-like action in the wake of 9/11, Ellison cited the Iraq war, certain provisions of the Patriot Act and Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence.

Yep, Scooter Libby's sentence commutation - I'd rank that right up there with Dachau for sure. What a dangerous fool this man is.

(a tip of the mantilla to the lovely and gracious Lady V over at Spanish Pundit.)

She's suspended, given time off to "reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest and conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam..." I should certainly hope so, 'cause she's definitely gone round the bend.

An Episcopal priest, who announced last month that she is also a practicing Muslim, has been suspended from the priesthood and other Episcopal leadership roles for a year. The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding should “reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest, and what I see as the conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam,” Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island wrote in an e-mail to other church leaders. Redding was ordained by a former bishop of Rhode Island 23 years ago and remains under the authority of that diocese.

Redding told the Seattle Times she removed her priest’s collar in a meeting with Bishop Wolf last week. The two will continue to communicate and revisit the issue at the end of the year. One of Reddings options, she said, is to voluntarily leave the priesthood. According to The Associated Press, Redding is scheduled to start teaching part time at Jesuit-run Seattle University this fall but Bishop Wolfs decision has barred her from teaching, preaching or working at any Episcopal church or institution.

Redding told the Seattle Times she has been a practicing Muslim for 15 months after she was profoundly moved by an introduction to Islamic prayer. She maintains that she has not violated any of her baptismal or ordination vows. She claims she has since become a better teacher, preacher and Christian.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

The Cincinnati office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Ohio chapter (CAIR-Ohio) announced today that two Muslim women in that city were able to have driver's license photographs retaken with their Islamic headscarves, or hijab, after initially being asked to remove the scarves.

CAIR says Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) employees had insisted that the women remove their headscarves for their driver's license photographs despite regulations requiring an exemption for religious head coverings.

According to a 2004 CAIR study of such policies nationwide, Ohio grants exemptions for 1) wigs or hairpieces if customarily worn by the applicant, 2) a head covering worn for recognized religious purposes, or 3) a head covering worn in conjunction with recognized medical treatments.

CAIR-Ohio's Cincinnati office contacted the BMV and arranged for the photographs of the two women to be retaken free of charge. BMV authorities also sent a reminder to all deputy registrar offices about the exemption for religious head coverings.

"We thank BMV officials for handling this issue in a timely and professional manner," said Karen Dabdoub, executive director of CAIR-Ohio's Cincinnati office.

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties and advocacy group, has 33 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Thisis not good. Tarring the protesters with the Neo-Nazi brush.German police have arrested 15 far-right extremists and five counter-protestors in the latest round of clashes over the controversial construction of the first mosque in the former East Berlin.

Some 340 police were deployed to deal with almost 600 demonstrators taking part in a protest on Wednesday night against the planned Ahmadiyya mosque in the Pankow-Heinersdorf neighborhood.

It ended in violent clashes between police, protestors and counter-protestors, police said on Thursday.

Officers said that the troublemakers, believed to be far-right extremists, now face charges of assault, disturbing the peace and resisting the police.

A point of contention...

Although the debate has been hijacked by the far-right, the main objections come from residents who insist their opposition is not ideological. They say they oppose the mosque purely on the grounds that there are no Muslims in the neighborhood and therefore no need for a mosque. Others say they fear an "Islamization" of the area, and that the new building will turn a quiet part of Berlin into a racial trouble-spot.

Muslim authorities argue that the mosque near the city's Tegel airport had become too crowded and that land in Pankow-Heinersdorf, which used to belong to the communist East German state, was cheap.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Today I sent off my application to ride on a Mardi Gras float in theKrewe of Iris.

I'm totally psyched.

Founded in 1917 and named for the Goddess of the Rainbow and Messenger to the Gods, the Krewe of Iris is now New Orleans' sole parading Carnival organization exclusively for women and the largest ladies' club in Carnival history. The Iris tableau ball was the first such event to ever be televised.The Krewe prides itself on strictly following the traditional customs of full-length Carnival masks and white gloves.The Captain of the Krewe of Iris throws her own special 10-guage doubloons...unique items of chartreuse and lavender with freshly-minted 10-guage blue and silver aluminum.

The oldest of female krewes and the largest female parading organization in Carnival history, this krewe takes its name from the Greek goddess of rainbows and messenger to the gods. Iris is known for presenting her court with great finery on a series of mini-floats, as well as her former queen and king who ride in convertible automobiles.

Way to go,Always on watch.This is a great find. Olympics mega-mosque linked to London and Glasgow car bomb plots: Arrested suspects radicalised by mosque promoters Tablighi Jamaat

“Government must ban construction of mega-mosque” says Cllr Alan CraigNewham councillor Alan Craig today called on the government to formally ban the construction of a massive mosque on a site less than a mile from the main 2012 Olympic stadium at Stratford, east London.Reports that Tablighi Jamaat - the fundamentalist Islamic sect who propose to build the mosque as their international headquarters - are directly responsible for radicalising two of the London and Glasgow car bomb suspects has added to suspicions that the sect are not the peaceable group they claim to be.“The dangerous truth about Tablighi Jamaat is coming out. We must watch the gap between what they say and what they do,” said Cllr Craig, leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance group on Newham Council, who lives with his young family a mile from the mosque site.” It will be a horrendous security nightmare if they are allowed to build this large mosque so close to the Olympics.”

The family says that these guys changed after hooking up with this bunch. Read it all atAlways on Watch.

Italy's interior minister Giuliano Amato, a renowned jurist and experienced politician, stunned colleagues across the political spectrum on Wednesday after saying that violence against women is a "Sicilian-Pakistani tradition.""No God authorizes a man to hit a woman," Amato, a leading member of the centre-left government coalition, told a conference on 'Islam and integration' in Rome. "It is rather a Sicilian-Pakistani tradition which wants us to believe otherwise."In his speech at the conference, the minister - a native of the northern city of Turin, which attracted economic migrant workers from the island of Sicily in the south throughout the last century - stressed that traditions rather than religions are to be blamed on many occasions.Amato said that up until the 1970s Sicily had traditions that were not very different from the ones imported in Italy by some Muslim immigrants today. "We must avoid blaming on God - the God of Christians and Muslims, who in reality is the same - what should instead be blamed on men," Amato said. His words however drew the ire of lawmakers, particularly members of the conservative opposition and Sicilian natives."Amato talks carelessly. He should immediately apologize to Sicilians or I will sue him," said ex equal opportunities minister Stefania Prestigiano, a member of the largest opposition party Forza Italia and a Sicilian.

The Pakistanis couldn't be reached. They were too busy building a car bomb with the Minister's name on it.

ISLAMABAD: People in the Pakistani capital showed little sympathy for militants in a mosque compound that security forces stormed yesterday but feared for the safety of women and children believed to be in the complex.“It had to happen one day, but thank God it’s over,” said Shazia Khurram, an Islamabad teacher, “Everyone’s worried about the women and innocent children. It will be very tragic if something happens to them.”(editor's note: these were the stick-wielding hijab wearing banshees that attacked discos, cd shops, massage parlors etc. pictured above.)

“The people in the Lal Masjid had become terrorists,” said Sohail Iqbal, a salesman at a book shop less than a kilometre from the mosque.“They held women and children hostage and even threatened to kill them if they left,” he said.

We have the Blame Bush crowd? Well, Pakistan has the Blame Pervez crowd - although it sounds like they DO have a point.

“If they acted then, a lot of lives could have been saved today,” said government employee Mumtaz Qureshi.Instead, the authorities had tried to appease the students after they mounted a vigilante anti-vice campaign, kidnapping women they accused of prostitution. They threatened shops selling Western films and abducted policemen.Raja Asghar, 62, a retired government official, said he failed to understand how the militants stockpiled arms and ammunition in a mosque in the centre of the capital. “People would be right in thinking if such a thing can happen in Islamabad, how much worse is it elsewhere?" Tailor Shaukat Ali in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, also blamed the government.“Almost every one agrees mosques and madrasas are for imparting Islamic education and should not be used for militancy ... (but) the government is responsible. Why did they allow it to go on for so long?” Ali said.

Warning: Muslim seething zone ahead.

In conservative areas on the Afghan border, where support for militants is rife, the assault was seen as an attack on Islam and an attempt to pander to the United States. “This is an attack not just on the Lal Masjid but on our religion, Islam,” said shopkeeper Malik Gul Maroof Shah in the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan.“We condemn the attack. Everything Musharraf does is to please the Americans,” said electronics shop owner Amir Hamza.–

Dead bodies frequently pulled from the River Tigris have dulled the Iraqi capital's appetite for masqouf, its popular dish of grilled carp, after it was reported that clerics had warned that the fish dined on rotting corpses."They spread rumors about the fish, that they eat the bodies of drowned people, but this is just a rumor," said fisherman Hussein Ahmed, 62, after setting his nets within sight of the heavily fortified Green Zone compound on the banks of the Tigris. Scores of corpses turn up every week in Baghdad, victims of unrelenting violence between majority Shiites and minority Sunni Arabs.Many are dumped in the Tigris, which flows through the heart of the city and was once lined with restaurants specializing in the masqouf people loved to eat on Friday nights. Most riverfront eateries closed after they became magnets for insurgents' bomb attacks.A fatwa, or religious edict, forbidding Iraqis to eat fish from the Tigris was reported by Iraqi media recently, but tracing its original source has been tricky. Prominent Shiite clerics in the holy southern city of Najaf yesterday denied any knowledge of the edict. Officials from the government office representing imams who run Iraq's Sunni mosques were not available for comment.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered a temporary burial for Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy chief of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, local Pakistani TV channel DAWN NEWS reported Wednesday. Arrangements will also made for Ghazi's close relatives at the burial, according to DAWN NEWS.

Spokesman of the Ministry of Interior Brig (R) Javed Iqbal Cheema on Wednesday said that the body of Ghazi would be transported to his ancestral village for burial.

There's this info about Moslem burials from About.com. It's a stag party of course and ick - "no coffins if permitted"???? No embalming???? How about joining the 21st Century, guys?

The deceased is then taken to the cemetery for burial (al-dafin). While all members of the community attend the funeral prayers, only the men of the community accompany the body to the gravesite. It is preferred for a Muslim to be buried where he or she died, and not be transported to another location or country (which may cause delays or require embalming the body). If available, a cemetery (or section of one) set aside for Muslims is preferred. The deceased is laid in the grave (without a coffin if permitted by local law) on his or her right side, facing Mecca. At the gravesite, it is discouraged for people to erect tombstones, elaborate markers, or put flowers or other momentos. Rather, one should humbly remember Allah and His mercy, and pray for the deceased.

It looks like Ghazi's Mom took three bullets and bought the farm with her son at the Red Mosque. Looks like she should have tried to sneak out with her other son instead of hanging around.Body of Ghazi’s mother not identified yet.

The Society of Iranian Jews issued a statement on Tuesday dismissing reports that Iranian Jews have been offered money to immigrate to Israel. The statement said Iranian Jews would not “exchange their Iranian identity for any sum of money.”

“The Iranian Jews are the oldest Iranians, and if a group has embarked on immigration, it is not an issue separate from other normal migrations by other Iranians,” it added.

The statement, which was signed by MP Morris Mo’tamed, who represents the Jewish community in the Majlis, and Dr. Siamak Sedq, the chairman of the Tehran Jewish Association, said Iranian Jews love their Iranian culture and identity and “threats and immature political enticements” cannot create a crack in their Iranian identity.

The statement followed a report in some newspapers on Monday saying Israel is trying to lure Iranian Jews to Israel by offering individuals a payment of $10,000.

The Jewish news outlet TJA recently ran a report on its website claiming that Israel has allocated $1 million to encourage Iranian Jews to immigrate to Israel.TJA said the fund was amassed by Jews of Iranian descent living in Israel. To entice Iranian Jews, Israel has increased the payment from $5000 to $10,000, TJA reported.

However, TJA has acknowledged that Iran’s over 20,000 Jews have shrugged off the offer.

Anchors Aweigh! And Grand Ayatollah?"Regular deployments of the strike groupd to the Middle East are not designed to provoke any of the Gulf countries..." Although it would be nice if it did...Bring it, Mahmoud so we can counter yourassertive, disruptive and coercive behavior.

Another US Navy aircraft carrier is heading towards the Middle East, boosting the number of the giant warships in the region to three, the navy said in a statement on Tuesday. The nuclear-powered USS Enterprise and its strike group will join the USS John C. Stennis and USS Nimitz in the navy's Fifth Fleet area of operation, which includes Gulf waters off Iran. "The Enterprise is heading to Fifth Fleet waters and is not replacing any other ships in the area," a US Navy spokesperson told AFP without elaborating. The US Navy has significantly beefed up its presence in the region recently amid growing concerns in the West that Iran is secretly developing a nuclear weapons programme -- an accusation Tehran strongly denies. The Enterprise "provides navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behaviour of some countries, as well as support (to) our soldiers and marines in Iraq and Afghanistan," Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgrifff said in the statement. "Regular deployments of the strike groups to the Middle East are not designed to provoke any of the Gulf countries," it added.

Britain has provoked al Qaeda into a possible terror attack by knighting Salman Rushdie, one of Iran's top religious leaders has exclusively told Sky News. The terror group has warned there will be a retaliatory strike against the UK following the novelist's honour. In response, Iran's Grand Ayatollah Saanei has told Sky News:

"When your Queen awards Salman Rushdie and turns him into a knight, what do you expect? This is a blasphemy. This is an insult to all the prophets of the world. Apart from the fact that this issue insults all the religions of the world, the terrorists can use this as a pretext and do something against Britain. This act of the Queen was a very, very vast action against Islam."

There's video of this joker at thelink.As I was watching it all I could think about was hitting him right in the old mufti with a cream pie. How's that for provocation, possums?

Pakistan's State Bank has introduced new checks on money transactions which may be used to monitor the funding of mosques and seminaries across the country. The bank said it had decided to establish a Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) to curb money laundering and terrorist financing.The move is considered significant as it came while the military operation against militants holed up in Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa was at its peak and showed the government’s concern over the flow of funds to seminaries.

Senior bankers said that people who provided funds to the Lal Masjid and other mosques and madrassas or Islamic seminaries through cheques could be traced.“An incident like Lal Masjid could put the donors into a difficult situation,” said a senior banker. The head of Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz, has already disclosed names of some people who have been providing funds to his madrassas.

There's more work to be done - as usual the legislators are the caboose bringing up the rear of the train.

“The scope of FMU will be further enhanced once the legislation on anti-money laundering is passed."

Tensions between Wahabis and mainstream Muslims have been simmering for the past 18 months as Wahabis seek to gain influence in Bosnia-Heregovina and also in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. In the past months, seven suspected militants were arrested in southern Serbia and a radical Islamist training camp and weapons cache uncovered. Evidence, the Serbian interior ministry says, that Wahabis are trying to recruit potential terrorists and plot attacks.

How do you tell a Wahabi? Look for long beards, short pants, and psychotic mindsets. And mosques? They don't need no stinkin' mosques.Visibly identifiable by their ankle length trousers and beards, Wahabis have campaigned to do away with with what they see as heresy, attempts that have erupted into violence several times. Asked if the Islamic community can solve the problem of Wahabi radicalism, Zukorlic replied: "They no longer pray in mosques." The Wahabi movement first emerged in the Balkans during the 1992-1995 civil war in Bosnia, when thousands of mujahadeen fighters from Islamic countries came to fight on the side of local Muslims. Many have remained in the country since the war, and according to foreign intelligence sources have been indoctrinating local youths and even operating terrorist training camps.Because of the Wahabi military support in the 1990s, the Bosnian government has been reluctant to crack down on Wahabi religious and military training efforts, analysts say. The Wahabis, who believe they are carrying out God's will, refuse to crack down on the alleged terrorists in their midst, stoking tensions between the Wahabis and the government.

Despite moderate mufti Zukorlic's assertion that the "Wahabis remain a small group with no significant influence in the region and the Wahabis claim that they are 'merely religious activists'. In my view, this tells the story about the Wahabis presence.

Only the funeral of former Bosnian Muslim leader and wartime Bosnian president, Alija Izetbegovic went down with a bigger crowd and more security than that of the unofficial leader of the Wahabi sect in Bosnia, Jusuf Barcic,, in Tuzla following his death in a car crash in April. Barcic's funeral threatened to become a serious incident as more than 3,000 Wahabis from Bosnia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany and Sandjak gathered at the event, refusing journalists access to the mosque. More than 50 uniformed and undercover police reportedly monitored the funeral. Police were reported to have taken no action when Palestinian Karray Kanel Bin Ali, the alleged 'mastermind' of the Wahabi sect in Bosnia, threatened to smash cameras and ordered a journalists to be removed from the spot.

Somebody should give Karray Kanel Bin Ali a wedgie in his short pants and then send his a$# back to Saudi Arabia.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

It seems that certain members of the Army of Islam have their kaffiyehs in a knot at Alan Johnston's for not being sufficiently grateful to them for being held captive at gunpoint for four months. "He didn't even say thanks," they grouse. The kidnappers expressed bizarre resentment that Johnston, 45, had done nothing to thank them for their hospitality while they held him at gunpoint in a tiny cell.

“We used to give him everything he wanted,” Abu Zobayer, an aide to Dagmoush, said.

“We spent £70 on his food every week. The Matouk restaurant [one of the best eateries in Gaza] got rich because we had to feed him.”

Johnston has said that he fell ill from the food he was served. Zobayer commented: “It’s not our problem that we gave him everything and he only ate a little.”

Although they did not torture him physically, the kidnappers seemed to have no concept of the psychological torture they were inflicting on the BBC correspondent.

“We had people with him all the time to try to help him to relax,” said Zobayer.

“We gave him a radio so that he could listen to his own channel. I myself sat with him to try to make him feel comfortable and feel that he will be released.”

Monday, July 09, 2007

Several thousand school teachers in Thailand's three troubled southernmost provinces have asked for transfers to posts elsewhere in the country, a senior teacher said Friday.

Why? Insurgents/Militants (read Muslims) attacks have increased.

There are more than 1,600 schools in the troubled provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat at present. Security measures for schools in the three provinces and some districts in nearby Songkhla province have been revised in order to better protect teachers, with military units from the Fourth Army Region, responsible for providing security in the South, being assigned to the schools, Mr Sa-nguan said earlier. However, given the continuing daily toll of death and destruction, it would seem that the added security is not effective.(ed. note: No sh^8, Sherlock.)

Five soldiers on teacher protection detail were wounded when a bomb hidden in the ceiling panel of the teacher’s room was detonated. Seven soldiers on teacher patrols were killed by a bomb or shot by insurgents after being thrown from their vehicle... in another case militants opened fire on a “pickup truck school bus” wounding two, including a student. In one of the more planned ambushes, a 10-man police convoy for teachers was ambushed, wounding one, and a roadside IED placed for the group of soldiers coming as reinforcements, detonated wounding one...Two schools and a sub-district office were arsoned.

And about that security? He adds this:

The security presence in the south was minimal. In five days of driving, last week, I rarely witnessed patrols. The vast majority of security forces, including army, police, rangers, and border patrol police were in fixed static positions, usually behind sandbags and concertina wire. Checkpoints are unmanned during the days, and only once was my vehicle stopped and searched. The security forces tend to go out only in reaction to events, rather than on active patrols. In only one case, did I see five soldiers on foot patrolling/searching. Most of the soldiers who are killed or wounded are on security detail for teachers; hence they do not like to leave their barracks. Despite the fact that there were two schools arsoned that week, and more than 200 altogether, I did not see a single security detail in front of a school. Not one school had even the slightest deterrent to attack.

In all 32 people and three militants were killed, and 94 were wounded. There were 23 IEDs detonated and three defused. A bomb in ******* killed four and wounded 26. Five soldiers on teacher protection detail were wounded when a bomb hidden in the ceiling panel of the teacher’s room was detonated. Seven soldiers on teacher patrols were killed by a bomb or shot by insurgents after being thrown from their vehicle. In other roadside IED incidents, a total of ten bombs wounded six soldiers, nine police and six rangers. Several bombs had no casualties. In one instance, a second IED was placed to target first responders. In another incident an IED was placed en route to the scene where a family of four was shot dead; four police were wounded. Most of the victims were killed by gunshot, including, four headmen, 14 civilians, and a female ranger. Other security forces came under fire, wounding, two border patrol police, three police and several soldiers, and one village defense volunteer. In one instance, suspected militants opened fire on a teashop killing a woman, wounding a police and a civilian; and in another case militants opened fire on a “pickup truck school bus” wounding two, including a student. In one of the more planned ambushes, a 10-man police convoy for teachers was ambushed, wounding one, and a roadside IED placed for the group of soldiers coming as reinforcements, detonated wounding one. In other violence, there were grenade attacks on a mosque and a teashop, wounding six civilians. One civilian was hacked to death and his corpse burnt; another civilian was shot, before his body was burnt. Two schools and a sub-district office were arsoned and train tracks were sabotaged: between 55-65 bolts were removed.

On 4 July, 11 suspected militants were arrested during a raid at the ********** Islamic School, in ******** district. Some 600-700 students tried to block the security forces from entering the compound. Some 108 items, including gun and bomb-making materials were seized. Several days later, authorities shut down the school.

No, it's not another radical madrassa in Pakistan ala the Red Mosque. It's Islam Burapha Islamic School, in Narathiwat’s Muang district, only five kilometers away from the Taksin Royal Palace.

About King Taksin(and if I were the short, bearded one in the Members Only jacket I just might want to read this).

The fate of King Taksin is often left undiscussed by online histories. The few online documents that look at the causes of King Taksin's downfall attribute his problems to mental health. Evidently King Taksin began to believe that he was a second incarnation of Buddha. He stopped governing the country and removed himself to a monastry. The ensuing chaos as government broke down led to riots. The execution took place on April 6, 1782. King Taksin was 48 years old and had been king for 15 years.

How do they execute a Thai King?

"(King Taksin) was deposed by his ministers, who then executed him in the custom reserved for royalty -- by shackling his hands and feet with gold restraints, sewing him into a velvet sack so that no royal blood touched the ground, then beating him to death with a sandalwood club.

Hey, It'sThe Sun, what do you expect? ANOTHER indication of the respect the average Muslim has for the United Kingdom and it's laws.

A MUSLIM woman juror could be facing jail after she was arrested in court for apparently listening to music during a murder trial.

She is said to have used a traditional hijab headscarf to hide earphones to her MP3 player while ignoring vital evidence from a retired businessman who brutally bludgeoned his disabled wife to death.

She has been accused of contempt, an offence which can carry an unlimited fine and indefinite imprisonment.

More about this "unidentified due to legal reasons" piece of work at thelink- and she is definitely a piece of work. It did my heart good to at least see that they used the word "Muslim" in the piece - even if they did spell hijab wrong.

According to an analysis from the Australian Federal Police counter-terrorism division, presented to a terrorism course in Sydney this week: "These extremists are previously unknown to authorities, exhibit no prior extremist tendencies publicly, do not associate with known extremists and are assimilated into the greater community. From all appearances and actions they are moderate members of society."

Their indoctrination and expertise comes from "Sheik Google" and the world wide web. "To a large extent, the internet has replaced actual training camps as a source of instruction and inspiration for militant Muslims," says the AFP analysis.Everything they need can be found on the hundreds of extremist websites: how to make bombs, avoid surveillance, achieve physical fitness and justify violence on religious grounds.The internet is now "the greatest enabler of teaching, nurturing and sustenance of extremist jihadi ideology".This was evidenced by recent terrorism raids in Australia, which recovered hundreds of "terabytes" of material - enough to fill several rooms up to the ceiling - downloaded from the internet.

It's sad but true. I hate google and yet, I use it shamelessly and boldly. Even worse - here I am on blogger! (although I've been thinking of moving onto another platform-warning techtard alert.) Why do I hate Google? 9 times out of 10 I am unable to access Little Green Footballs when I click on an LGF link. Same with Power Line. But let a Jihadi scumbag try and hook up with say - plans for a nuclear bomb and bang! (literally) - they've got it. And I know it's because Google wants it that way. Why do I use it shamelessly? Unfortunately, it's the only game in town. I think there will come a time when the Crusaders (that means you and me, white man) will have to come up with an alternative.Until then, I say, Google be damned. Let's take the fight to the enemy using every tool at our disposal.)And then there'swICKipedia.Sometimes you'll find me playing in that fever swamp.

AUSTRALIAN authorities are investigating whether Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef is part of a national sleeper cell of foreign doctors established here to fund overseas terrorist activities including the botched bomb attacks in the United Kingdom.Federal and Queensland police are currently tracking overseas and local transactions from the bank accounts of Indian-born Dr Haneef who was the eighth suspect arrested over the attacks in London and Glasgow late last month, law enforcement sources said.Each overseas transaction is believed to be below $10,000 which would avoid any scrutiny from AUSTRAC – a Federal Government regulator of transactions of $10,000 or more.If the funds can be directly linked to terrorist activity, UK authorities could extradite Dr Haneef, 27, who remains in custody at the Brisbane police watchhouse.Yesterday, as a bomb squad opened his locker at the Gold Coast Hospital, it turned out not to be his and it turned out to be clean. This is most interesting:The Sunday Mail can also reveal that police are examining signature stamps found in computer software on Dr Haneef's laptop which was seized during raids at his Gold Coast unit last Tuesday.Police suspect the stamps, believed to be of Indian origin, may be from an overseas university.

Law enforcement sources said the discovery of the stamps has sparked concerns that they could be used to falsify documents. It is understood an AFP officer will travel to India to trace the origin of the stamps.

God bless the Aussies. It sounds like they are all over this guy like a cheap suit.

Dr Haneef's every association and movement since his arrival in Australia last year will come under scrutiny as police seek to determine whether a terror cell had taken hold here. With no scenario ruled out, flight schools will be contacted to see if Dr Haneef was taking flying lessons and Gold Coast internet cafes will be checked.Up to 50 specialist investigators from Queensland police's State Crime Operations Command and forensic units are working on the investigation with the Australian Federal Police.

The FBI yesterday confirmed a report Dr Haneef had sought to work at a US hospital last year prior to coming to Australia.

Haneef and Jordanian neurologist Mohammed Jamil Asha (the islam-o-nutjob arrested with his wife in Manchester), tried to workthe Philadelphia angle to get into the US.

We keep getting better and better at rounding them up, now we need to get better at keeping them from even getting started. A.) Don't let them in. B.) Stop accommodating the ones that are here. Any other suggestions?

or so saysThe Times of India. They also keep throwing the word "allegedly" around when they describe the actions of this evil idiot. Like we didn't all see him doing it!Sometimes they really carry this presumed innocent business too far especially when it comes to acts of terror. It if walks like a duck, etc.

Kafeel Ahmed, the Indian engineer who allegedly drove a blazing jeep into the Glasgow airport, had left a suicide note at his house, a media report said on Sunday amid claims that he had links with a senior Al-Qaeda operative.

Old Kafeel was "allegedly" radicalized by Hizb ut-Tahrir back in 2004 while he was doing research at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. He's chummy with Al Qaeda bombmaker Abbas Boutrab and they may have belonged to the same AQ cell in "the quiet base" of Ireland. Oh and he also hadjihadi materialsin his possession.

...The disclosure will raise fresh questions over the extent of information held by Mi5, the British Intelligence Service, on suspects involved in the attempted car bomb attacks.

... Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command SO15 is understood to have uncovered evidence that in the months leading up to the attacks one or more of the suspects communicated by telephone or e-mail with terrorist leaders in Iraq.

....Details of the Al-Qaeda role in the three failed car bombings are expected to emerge over the next few days.

...The development suggests that intelligence received by Mi5, British Intelligence Service, earlier this year about a possible Al-Qaeda attack to mark Blair's departure was accurate. A report in April by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) warned that a senior Iraqi Al-Qaeda commander had outlined details of a big attack in Britain. The report said the commander "stressed the need to take care to ensure the attack was successful and on a large scale". It was aimed "ideally" to take place before Blair stepped down. It said JTAC which is based at Mi5's London headquarters, was "aware that AQ-I (Al Qaeda in Iraq)... networks are active in the UK".

Saturday, July 07, 2007

It turns out to be a cashier's check. And here I was hoping it would be a personal check. I love the thought of Scooter paying his fine with a personal check. I once worked with a guy named Scooter. He was a wild man of the first order and as a result, I have always had a fondness for the name. I've always had a fondness for guys who can write personal checks in the amount of $250,000, too.

Moroccan security forces put on maximum alert.RABAT (AFP) - Morocco's security forces were on maximum alert on Saturday after "established terror threats" by what experts said was the regional branch of Al-Qaeda. Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa informed the country's security experts on Friday of a "current threat" against the north-west African country."Reliable information relayed in recent days to the interior ministry described the preparation of acts of terrorism in Morocco," a Moroccan security source told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Morocco is cooperating fully with foreign police services," the source said, adding that in the face of the threat, Morocco "is putting itself in a situation of extreme vigilance."

According toRooz, the bearded, short one in the Members Only jacket is calling for it.

A week after launching his gasoline rationing scheme, which led to violence across the country, president Ahmadinejad announced his desire to replicate to replicate the idea for electricity as well. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of Shahid Reyis Ali Delvari dam in Bushehr province, he referred to gasoline rationing and announced, “This type of conservation could also be applied to electricity consumption.”

They're producing record amounts - but... The president of the Islamic Republic spoke of the need to conserve electricity at a time when just last week the minister of power boasted a record amount of electricity produced in the country last year. “If no unexpected problem occurs and power consumption does not radically change during peak hours, we shall not have the expected power breaks,” he said.

Who you gonna believe? The minister? Or the black outs?

These words of the minister of the ninth Islamic government were made at a time when during the past recent weeks the country experienced extensive black outs, which experts have attributed to the run-down and limited capacity of the power grid, “parts of which are over 50 years old, requiring renovation.”

Especially when the minister appears to be talking out of both sides of his mouth... The president’s comments gain weight when one notes that just last week the ministry of power called on the public to conserve on power consumption warning that if they did not, they would face power cuts.

"...On Tuesday, new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with representatives of the medical and car communities and announced that the government would henceforth prohibit occupational and transportational profiling by public officials. Brown said further government communications would prohibit the use of certain prejudicial words like "doctor," "Vauxhall," "podiatrist," "propane," "Asia," "drive," "ticking noises," "panic," and "the." Brown also announced the formation of a blue ribbon multicultural community advisory board chaired by Dr. Mohammed Ibn-Yasin of the UK Islamic Podiatric and Car Bombing Club..."

KENNY MacAskill, the Cabinet secretary for justice, embraced Scotland's muslim community as "the latest of Jock Tamson's bairns" yesterday in an attempt to heal any divisions caused by the terrorist attack in Glasgow. (this in itself is ludicrous on its face.)

Mr MacAskill praised the muslim community during a visit to the Edinburgh Central Mosque, insisting that Scotland had a long history of welcoming people from different countries and religions.

He said he wanted "to pay respect to the muslim community in Scotland, to recognise they are a vital factor in 21st century Scotland, they are just the latest of Jock Tamson's bairns."

The Justice Secretary also condemned acts of retaliation and vandalism against the muslim community after the Glasgow airport attack. Mr MacAskill said: "Any incident is an incident too many.

"Police, prosecution and government will not countenance anybody seeking to vent their racist spleen on individuals."

Oh, cry me a river you big bunch of Muslim babies. So what's been happening in the racist spleen dept that required a "special meeting"????

A MOSQUE was targeted in a revenge attack for the Glasgow strike, it was feared yesterday. An estate agents next to the Islamic centre in Bathgate, West Lothian, was attacked on Sunday night when what appeared to be a petrol bomb was thrown through a window...Shami Khan, a community activist and an Edinburgh city councillor until the May elections, said last night: "People will be victimised and there will be a backlash after the Glasgow attack."...

Jalal Chaudry, a spokesman for the Edinburgh Muslim community, said anti-Muslim graffiti had been spotted in Edinburgh. He had been to an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders, also attended by Alex Salmond and the justice minister, Kenny McAskill, in Glasgow on Sunday.